Valparaíso and La Vega Market

Valparaíso is about a 1 and a half hour bus ride away from Santiago.

Valparaíso Chile, Harbor

Most of the pictures on this posting were taken on a tour of Valparaíso led by a friend with his company Tours 4 Tips. Here is the harbor. Apparently, people from Valparaíso refer to themselves as porteños (which means "port people" more or less). Check out the name of that little boat..... "I love Nikol". Sweet.

Headquarters of the Chilean Navy in Plaza Sotomayor in Valparaíso.

Cable car, Valparaiso

Tours 4 tips guide. Behind him are some of the many elevators or funiculars in Valparaiso.

View from one of the 45 hills in Valparaíso. If you're too tired to walk up the hills, some hills have ascensores or old-school elevators that will take you slowly up-hill. The city reminded us of San Francisco, New Orleans, Havana, and Gloucester all rolled into one fun and crazy place.

Night view of the city.

Central Market - "La Vega" Santiago, Chile

Fish market.

Peruvian sauces. The Peruvian woman who owns this stand at the market will put together a sauce for you if you just tell her what you plan on cooking it with. Chileans generally enjoy and eat a lot of Peruvian food. According to most of the Chileans we've talked to, Peruvian food and culture has added a lot of spice and flavor to Chilean culture.

Watermelons anyone?

It's normally more crowded than this we hear.

This is a fruit called a pepino which is the same word used for cucumber in a lot of places. You can eat the skin and everything. It's similar to a honeydew melon in taste and texture but definitely not in size.

If you're looking at the prices, 500 is about 1 U.S. dollar and the prices are for kilograms, not pounds.

This woman is making sopaipillas which are made from mashed up pumpkin and flour, then deep fried. They're usually eaten with a spicy paste made out of crushed chiles. Very tasty.

Musician playing for tips.

At a bar called La Piojera which is very well known in Santiago, they make a drink called the Terremoto (which means earthquake). They also have drinks called Aftershocks and Tsunamis but we stuck to the Terremoto. It's made out of pineapple ice-cream (which you can see is already in the glasses), white wine, and a little bit of Fernet.

The Island of Chiloé

After a few hours bus/ferry ride from Puerto Montt I arrived in Castro and checked into a hostel.  Normally there are penguin colonies nesting, but they are out to sea for the winter, so I hopped on a local bus/ferry to another island east called Quellón.   The next day I explored the beach and rain forest in Chiloé National Park.

Massive shell fish smothered in cheese.

Salmon with local purple potatoes

Puerto Varas and more volcanoes

I sat on the shores of Puerto Varas watching the dusk fall on the Osorno Volcano across Llanquihue Lake.

Jet boat tour for a closer look at the Saltos del Petrohue

The water really was turquoise

I sat for a few hours and read by a lake called Todos Los Santos

Land of the Volcanoes through the Villarica Traverse

I hoped to do some hiking and luckily I met a group going for a 3 day trek in the Villarrica National Park.
The volcanic landscapes with craters and lava fields were spectacular.

 Oz leads the way.

Meike looks out to the active Villarica Volcano.

 Walking out to Laguna Blanca.

Max recited morning prayers wearing traditional Jewish prayer vestments.

Pucón, my base for some day trips

I had my first taste of Patagonia traveling for ten days.  My trip started with a 10 hour $15 overnight bus ride from Santiago to Pucón. 

While traveling solo, I met some people at my hostel for some day trips on local buses.
  below:  Playa Blanca, in Caburga

Sean leaps off the the Ojos del Caburgua waterfalls

I saw some Araucaria or Monkey Puzzle trees for the first time in a private reserve called Santuario Cañi